A proverb, which comes from the Latin word proverbium, or an adage is a short, traditional saying that shares a belief based on common sense or life experiences. Proverbs are often metaphorical and use set phrases. A proverbial phrase or expression is a type of saying similar to proverbs, passed down through spoken traditions. The main difference is that proverbs are fixed and do not change, while proverbial phrases can be adjusted to fit the grammar of a sentence. Together, proverbs and similar sayings form a part of folklore.

Some proverbs appear in multiple languages because people share them with other cultures they interact with. In the West, the Bible (including the Book of Proverbs) and medieval Latin, especially through the work of Erasmus, helped spread proverbs widely. However, not all Bible proverbs became popular in the same way. One study found that cultures where the Bible is the main spiritual text have between 300 and 500 proverbs from the Bible. Another study showed that out of the 106 most common proverbs in Europe, only 11 came from the Bible. Despite this, nearly every culture has its own special proverbs.

Definitions

Lord John Russell, who lived around 1850, once said that a "proverb is the wit of one, and the wisdom of many." However, defining the word "proverb" in a way that scholars need has been a difficult task. Although many experts refer to Archer Taylor’s argument that creating a scientific definition of a proverb is too hard to be worth the effort, many students of proverbs have tried to describe their key features.

Wolfgang Mieder suggested this definition: A proverb is a short, well-known sentence from the people that includes wisdom, truth, morals, and traditional ideas. It uses metaphors and is easy to remember. It is passed down through generations. To help distinguish proverbs from other types of sayings, such as idioms or clichés, Norrick created a table of features. Prahlad added that true proverbs must also be separated from other types of sayings, such as proverbial phrases, maxims, quotations, and comparisons. Based on Persian proverbs, Zolfaghari and Ameri proposed this definition: A proverb is a short, well-known sentence that may be rhythmic. It includes advice, wise themes, and cultural experiences. It uses similes, metaphors, or irony and is known for its clear, simple, and general wording. It may be used as is or with changes.

Many English sayings are called "proverbs," such as weather-related sayings. However, Alan Dundes argued that these are not true proverbs. For example, a phrase labeled "A Yorkshire proverb" in 1883, like "as throng as Throp's wife when she hanged herself with a dish-cloth," would not be considered a proverb today. The definition of "proverb" has also changed in other cultures, such as in Turkish.

In other languages and cultures, the definition of "proverb" differs. In the Chumburung language of Ghana, "aŋase" are literal proverbs, and "akpare" are metaphorical ones. Among the Bini of Nigeria, three words are used to describe proverbs: "ere" refers to historical events, "ivbe" refers to current events, and "itan" refers to "linguistic ornamentation in formal speech." Among the Balochi people of Pakistan and Afghanistan, "batal" refers to ordinary proverbs, while "bassīttuks" refers to proverbs with background stories.

Some language groups mix proverbs and riddles in their sayings, leading scholars to call these "proverb riddles." Another similar type of saying is an idiomatic phrase. Sometimes it is hard to tell the difference between idiomatic phrases and proverbial expressions. Both use figurative language, but the difference is that an idiomatic phrase uses figurative language in its parts, while a proverbial phrase uses figurative meaning as an extension of its literal meaning. Some experts classify proverbs and proverbial phrases as types of idioms.

Interpretations

Interpreting proverbs can be difficult, but it works best when done in the right context. Understanding proverbs from other cultures is even harder than understanding those from your own culture. Even among people who speak English, there are different opinions about the meaning of the proverb "A rolling stone gathers no moss." Some people think it criticizes someone who is always moving, seeing moss as something good, like profit. Others believe it praises people who keep moving and growing, seeing moss as something bad, like bad habits.

Similarly, among people who speak Tajik, the proverb "One hand cannot clap" has two main meanings. Most people see it as a way to encourage working together. Others think it means that an argument needs two people. In one extreme case, a researcher in Ghana found that one Akan proverb had twelve different meanings. Understanding proverbs is not automatic, even for people in the same culture. Owomoyela wrote about a Yoruba radio show where people were asked to explain an unfamiliar Yoruba proverb, and very few could do it correctly. Siran found that people who left the traditional Vute-speaking area of Cameroon struggled to explain Vute proverbs correctly, even though they still spoke the language. Their explanations were often too literal.

Children sometimes take proverbs literally, not yet knowing how to understand the figurative language. Understanding proverbs can also be affected by brain injuries or diseases. For example, a common sign of schizophrenia is difficulty interpreting proverbs.

Features

Proverbs in different languages have many types of grammar. In English, for example, proverbs can use structures like "All is fair in love and war" or "A rolling stone gathers no moss." Sometimes, people only say part of a proverb, like "All is fair" instead of the full version.

The grammar in proverbs is not always the same as the grammar used in everyday speech. Words are often rearranged to make the proverb rhyme or to highlight important ideas.

One type of structure in proverbs is called a "wellerism." This includes a speaker and a quote, often with an unusual situation. For example, a wellerism might be: "The bride couldn't dance; she said, 'The room floor isn't flat.'"

Another type of structure is a short dialogue, like a conversation between two people.

Many proverbs are passed down through generations in fixed forms. Even though spoken language changes over time, proverbs often stay the same, using old or unusual words and grammar. For example, the English word "betwixt" is not commonly used today, but it appears in the proverb "There is many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip." This helps keep the rhythm and rhyme of the proverb.

Proverbs are often used in languages that are no longer widely spoken. For example, English speakers might use phrases like "C'est la vie" (from French) or "Carpe diem" (from Latin).

Proverbs often refer to old measurements, jobs, weapons, or things that are no longer common. Because of this, they can preserve words and ideas that are no longer used in everyday life. Some proverbs are even kept in physical forms, like carvings or stained glass, even when the language they come from is no longer widely spoken.

Proverbs are easy to translate and share between languages. For example, the same proverb can appear in many different cultures. A proverb like "No flies enter a mouth that is shut" is found in countries like Spain, France, Ethiopia, and others. It can be traced back to an ancient Babylonian proverb.

Some proverbs are shared across many languages and regions. For example, the idea of "one hand clapping" appears in many Asian languages, from Afghanistan to Japan. Studies have shown that proverbs can spread widely, even across continents.

It is not always possible to know where a proverb came from. Sometimes, proverbs are borrowed through many languages, making it hard to trace their origin. In some cases, the poetic style of a proverb in one language can help identify its source. For example, an Ethiopian proverb has a poetic form in the Oromo language but a simpler form in Amharic and Alaaba.

Not all languages have proverbs. Proverbs are common in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Some Pacific languages, like Māori, have proverbs called "whakataukī," but others, like Kilivila (spoken in the Trobriand Islands), do not. In the Americas, there are very few proverbs. Some researchers believe this is because it is hard to recognize proverbs in Native American languages.

Some scholars, like Hakamies, have studied whether proverbs are found in all languages. They concluded that proverbs are not universal and are not found in every language.

Use

Proverbs are used more often in adult conversations than in children's conversations. This is partly because adults know more proverbs than children. Using proverbs well is a skill that takes many years to develop. Children also have not yet mastered the ways of speaking indirectly, which is needed to use proverbs. Proverbs are often used to give advice or express disagreement without being too direct. However, studying how proverbs are used in real conversations is difficult because researchers must wait for proverbs to appear naturally. An Ethiopian researcher named Tadesse Jaleta Jirata helped with this by attending events where proverbs were expected and taking detailed notes.

Many authors have included proverbs in their writing across many types of literature, such as epics, novels, poems, and short stories. One of the most famous authors to use proverbs in novels is J. R. R. Tolkien, who included them in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Herman Melville created proverbs in Moby-Dick and his poetry. C. S. Lewis wrote a dozen proverbs for The Horse and His Boy, and Mercedes Lackey created many proverbs for her fictional cultures. Some of Lackey's proverbs are similar to those from Ancient Asia, like "Just because you feel certain an enemy is lurking behind every bush, it doesn't follow that you are wrong," which is like "Before telling secrets on the road, look in the bushes." These authors are known for both using proverbs in their stories and creating new ones.

In medieval literature, Geoffrey Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde is special because Chaucer used proverbs in a way that questions whether they are always true. François Rabelais used proverbs to write an entire chapter in Gargantua.

The way proverbs are used in literature has changed over time. A study of classical Chinese novels found that proverbs were used as often as one every 3,500 words in Water Margin and one every 4,000 words in Wen Jou-hsiang. Modern Chinese novels use far fewer proverbs.

Proverbs or parts of them have inspired book titles, such as The Bigger They Come by Erle Stanley Gardner and Birds of a Feather (used for several books). Some titles hint at proverbs without quoting them, like The Gift Horse's Mouth by Robert Campbell. Other titles twist or change proverbs, such as No Use Dying Over Spilled Milk and Blessed Are the Cheesemakers, which was also used in the movie Life of Brian.

Some books and stories are built around proverbs. For example, some of Tolkien's books are said to have "governing proverbs" that shape the story. In Louisa May Alcott's Proverb Stories, a story begins with "A stitch in time saves nine." In Aesop's Fables, a proverb often appears at the end to summarize a lesson, like "Heaven helps those who help themselves." In a novel by Ahmadou Kourouma, proverbs are used to end each chapter.

Poets have also used proverbs. Some books and poems have titles based on proverbs, such as A Bird in the Bush and The Blind Leading the Blind. In Paul Muldoon's poem Symposium, lines like "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it hold its nose to the grindstone" appear. In Finland, old poems used proverbs. The Turkish poet Refiki wrote a poem made entirely of proverbs, and Eliza Griswold created a poem using Libyan proverbs translated into English.

Hip-hop poets in the United States and Nigeria have used proverbs in their music. Nigerian poets often mix proverbs from different languages, sometimes translating them. For example, "They forget say ogbon ju agbaralo" means "They forget that wisdom is greater than power."

Some authors have changed or twisted proverbs for creative purposes. In Harry Potter, J. K. Rowling uses "It's no good crying over spilt potion" and Dumbledore says "Don't count your owls before they are delivered." In Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey–Maturin series, characters mix up proverbs, like "Never count the bear's skin before it is hatched."

Sometimes, authors use proverbs in historical fiction even though the proverbs were not known in the time period their stories are set in. For example, in Ramage and the Rebels, a character says "It is dangerous to change horses in midstream," but this proverb was not used until 1864, long after the story's setting.

Some authors use so many proverbs that

Variations

There are proverbs that have opposite meanings, such as "Look before you leap" and "He who hesitates is lost," or "Many hands make light work" and "Too many cooks spoil the broth." These are called "counter proverbs" or "antonymous proverbs." Stanisław Lec noted, "Proverbs often contradict each other. This is part of folk wisdom." When counter proverbs exist, each is used in its own situation and is not meant to be a rule that applies everywhere.

The term "counter proverb" refers to pairs of proverbs that have opposite meanings, not proverbs used to argue against each other. For example, in the Tafi language of Ghana, two proverbs are opposites but are used in different situations: "A co-wife who is too powerful for you, you address her as your mother" and "Do not call your mother's co-wife your mother…" In Nepali, two proverbs directly contradict each other: "Religion is victorious and sin erodes" and "Religion erodes and sin is victorious." From the Kasena of Ghana, two counter proverbs are: "It is the patient person who will milk a barren cow" and "The person who would milk a barren cow must prepare for a kick on the forehead." In the Lugbara language (of Uganda and Congo), two proverbs contradict each other: "The elephant's tusk does not overwhelm the elephant" and "The elephant's tusks weigh the elephant down." These proverbs are opposites, whether used in an argument or not. However, some books include proverbs that are used to argue opposite points but are not naturally contradictory, such as "One is better off with hope of a cow's return than news of its death" and "If you don't know a goat [before its death] you mock at its skin."

Hockings explained that in the Badaga language, some proverbs seem to contradict each other, but the Badagas use them in different situations. Similarly, in Korean, proverbs often have opposite meanings and are used for specific situations.

"Counter proverbs" are not the same as "paradoxical proverbs," which are proverbs that seem to say one thing but mean the opposite.

In many cultures, proverbs are so important that there are proverbs about proverbs, called "metaproverbs." One famous example comes from the Yoruba people of Nigeria: "Proverbs are the horses of speech, if communication is lost we use proverbs to find it," used by Wole Soyinka in Death and the King's Horsemen. In a list of proverb studies, twelve works describe metaproverbs. Other examples include:

Applications

Proverbs are being used more often on purpose to help achieve goals, especially to support changes in society. For example, proverbs have been used in public health efforts, like encouraging breastfeeding by using a shawl with a Swahili proverb that says, "Mother's milk is sweet." Proverbs have also been used to help people manage diabetes, reduce prostitution, and support community development. They have also been used to help resolve conflicts and slow the spread of HIV.

Christian ministry is one of the most active areas where proverbs are used on purpose. People like Joseph G. Healey have worked to collect proverbs from smaller languages and use them in church-related activities. This work has led to the publication of books that include these proverbs and their uses. Using proverbs in Christian ministry is not new, as many early collections of proverbs were created and published by Christian workers.

U.S. Navy Captain Edward Zellem used Afghan proverbs to help build positive relationships during the war in Afghanistan. In 2012, he published two books with Afghan proverbs in Dari and English. These books were part of an effort to help build a country. In 2014, he also published a book with Pashto proverbs.

Scholars have long debated whether proverbs show the cultural values of the people who use them. Some believe that proverbs reflect the values of the culture they come from. For example, books like "An introduction to Kasena society and culture through their proverbs" and "Prejudice, power, and poverty in Haiti: a study of a nation's culture as seen through its proverbs" support this idea. Kohistani wrote a thesis showing how understanding Afghan Dari proverbs can help Europeans learn about Afghan culture.

However, some scholars disagree. They argue that many proverbs are shared across cultures and reflect human experiences rather than unique cultural views. For example, a study of 199 American proverbs found that only 10 were created in the United States, suggesting that most proverbs do not reflect uniquely American values. Others say that proverbs change over time, with old ones falling out of use and new ones appearing to match current values. This makes it hard to use proverbs as a simple guide to cultural values. Also, some proverbs may seem to contradict each other, making it hard to find clear cultural messages.

Many people outside of a culture have studied proverbs to learn about that culture's values and beliefs. These scholars believe they have learned about local cultures through proverbs, but not everyone agrees.

To test whether proverbs reflect cultural values, some researchers have counted how many proverbs support certain values. For example, Moon studied the Builsa people of Ghana and found that 18% of the proverbs he analyzed supported the value of being part of a community. This matched other evidence showing that community membership is important for the Builsa. Bell studied Tajik proverbs and found that they consistently showed Tajik values. Another study found that English proverbs created after 1900 showed a sudden increase in proverbs with more casual attitudes toward sex, which matched the changes of the 1960s Sexual Revolution. Another study found that proverbs about religion in Anglo-American cultures showed a decline in religious attitudes over time.

Proverbs have been used to explain cultural values in many places. For example, in India, the idea that birth determines one's nature is shown in the proverb: "There can be no friendship between grass-eaters and meat-eaters, between a food and its eater." Proverbs have also been used to explain the Fulani cultural value of pulaaku. However, using proverbs to explain a value is different from using them to understand a culture's values. A study comparing Spanish and Jordanian proverbs showed how proverbs can describe the role of mothers in different societies.

Some scholars say that proverbs may show parts of a culture's values, but not all of them. They compare proverbs to "tantalizing shadows" of a culture, meaning they give some clues but are not complete pictures. There is still no agreement on how much proverbs reflect cultural values.

The Soviet Union believed proverbs directly showed cultural values. They used proverbs to change values in the countries they controlled. For example, they changed old Russian proverbs to promote socialism, like "Bread is given to us not by Christ, but by machines and collective farms." They also created new proverbs in Tajik and other languages that supported socialist ideas.

Proverbs often talk about ethics and expected behavior, which is why they are important in religions. The most famous example is the Book of Proverbs in the Bible. Other proverbs have been created to support religious values, such as a Dari proverb from Afghanistan: "In childhood you're playful, In youth you're lustful, In old age you're feeble, So when will you before God be worshipful?"

Religious proverbs are not only found in monotheistic religions. For example, among the Badagas of India (Sahivite Hindus), there is a traditional proverb: "Catch hold of and join with the man who has placed sacred ash [on himself]."

Paremiology

The study of proverbs is called paremiology. This field helps researchers learn about topics like philosophy, linguistics, and folklore. Within paremiology, scholars examine different types and styles of proverbs. They also study how people use or misuse common expressions that are not strictly "proverbial" according to dictionary definitions.

Grigorii Permjakov created the idea of a basic set of proverbs that most people in a society know. He called this set the "paremiological minimum" in 1979. For example, an adult American is expected to know the phrase "Birds of a feather flock together," which is part of the American paremiological minimum. However, most adults in America are not expected to know "Fair in the cradle, foul in the saddle," an old English proverb that is not included in the American paremiological minimum. Permjakov also noted that every adult who speaks Russian is likely to know at least 800 proverbs, sayings, or common phrases. Studies of the paremiological minimum have been done for several languages, including Ukrainian, Russian, Hungarian, Czech, Somali, Chinese, Nepali, Gujarati, Spanish, Esperanto, Polish, Croatian, and Portuguese. In the United States, two notable attempts to define the paremiological minimum were made by Haas (2008) and Hirsch, Kett, and Trefil (1988). No standard method has yet been agreed upon for calculating the paremiological minimum, as different studies have produced varying results.

A major work in the study of proverbs is Archer Taylor's book The Proverb (1931), later republished with an index by Wolfgang Mieder (1985/1934). A good introduction to the study of proverbs is Mieder's 2004 book, Proverbs: A Handbook. Mieder has also written many books and articles on proverbs, as well as a series of bibliographies on proverb research. Stan Nussbaum edited a large collection of African proverbs on a CD, including reprinted works, original collections, and studies on how proverbs are used in Christian ministry (1998). Paczolay compared proverbs across Europe and published a collection of similar proverbs in 55 languages (1997). There is an academic journal called Proverbium (ISSN 0743-782X), with many past issues available online. A book containing articles on proverbs was edited by Mieder and Alan Dundes (1994/1981). Paremia is a Spanish-language journal on proverbs, with online articles. Papers on proverbs are also published in conference proceedings from the annual Interdisciplinary Colloquium on Proverbs in Tavira, Portugal. Mieder has written a two-volume bibliography of paremiology and phraseology, with indexes by topic, language, and author. He has also published a bibliography of global proverb collections. A book titled Introduction to Paremiology, edited by Hrisztalina Hrisztova-Gotthardt and Melita Aleksa Varga, provides a broad overview of proverb study. It is available in both hardcover and free open access, with contributions from 12 authors. In 2023, Wolfgang Mieder released a new bibliography with 6,364 entries, available for free download: International Bibliography of Paremiology and Phraseology (2008–2022). For those studying traditional proverbs, a free downloadable guide called Proverb Studies: A Practical Manual offers ideas and techniques for research.

The study of proverbs has been shaped by many scholars. Earlier researchers focused more on collecting proverbs than analyzing them. Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536), a Latin scholar, collected Latin proverbs in a book called Adagia, which helped spread these proverbs across Europe. Juan de Mal Lara, a 16th-century Spanish scholar, wrote a book titled Philosophia vulgar (1568), the first part of which includes 1,001 sayings. Hernán Núñez published a collection of Spanish proverbs in 1555.

In the 19th century, more scholars began publishing collections of proverbs. Samuel Adalberg collected Yiddish proverbs (1888, 1890) and Polish proverbs (1889–1894). Samuel Ajayi Crowther, an Anglican bishop in Nigeria, published a collection of Yoruba proverbs in 1852. Elias Lönnrot published a collection of Finnish proverbs in 1842.

From the 20th century onward, scholars began analyzing and comparing proverbs, not just collecting them. Alan Dundes, a 20th-century American folklorist, was called a "pioneering paremiologist" by Wolfgang Mieder. Matti Kuusi, a 20th-century Finnish scholar, created an international system for classifying proverbs. With support from Archer Taylor, he founded the journal Proverbium: Bulletin d'Information sur les Recherches Parémiologiques, published from 1965 to 1975 by the Society for Finnish Literature. The journal was later restarted as an annual publication, Proverbium: International Yearbook of Proverb Scholarship. Archer Taylor, a 20th-century American scholar, is best known for his book The Proverb. Dimitrios Loukatos, a 20th-century Greek scholar, wrote works such as Aetiological Tales of Modern Greek Proverbs. Arvo Krikmann (1939–2017), an Estonian scholar, was called "one of the leading paremiologists in the world" by Wolfgang Mieder. Elisabeth Piirainen, a German scholar, has published 50 works related to proverbs.

Modern scholars continue to analyze and collect proverbs. Claude Buridant, a 20th-century French scholar, focused on Romance languages. Galit Hasan-Rokem, an Israeli scholar, has been an associate editor